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Algebra 2
Course: Algebra 2 > Unit 3
Lesson 1: Factoring monomials- Introduction to factoring higher degree polynomials
- Introduction to factoring higher degree monomials
- Which monomial factorization is correct?
- Worked example: finding the missing monomial factor
- Worked example: finding missing monomial side in area model
- Factoring monomials
- Factor monomials
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Introduction to factoring higher degree monomials
Just as we can factor 12 as 2⋅6 or as 3⋅4, we can factor monomials like 6x⁷ as 2x³⋅3x⁴ or as x⁶⋅6x. We can also perform prime factorization on a monomial.
Want to join the conversation?
- If you had, for example, something like x^2+6x+9, couldn't you factor it to (x+3)^2? Is it something like that? Thanks!(11 votes)
- Your equation was the one Sal used, but you only added a nine to it. Still, you are right.
(Usually I would add a "Hope that helps!" right here, but that is not needed here.)(10 votes)
- Sal said 'higher order expressions' at. 1:56
Did he just make a mistake and intended to say 'higher degree expressions'?
If not, what does 'higher order expressions' mean?(2 votes) - If you had, for example, something like x^2+6x+9, couldn't you factor it to (x+3)^2? Is it something like that? Thanks!(3 votes)
- What is an analogue? Sal says it at. 0:57(2 votes)
- Side question, I am learning about factoring nested fractions, is there anything that can better explain this process here? The nested fractions section is pretty bare. I don't know where to go other than my textbook and its fairly basic.(2 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] In this
video we're going to dig a little bit deeper into our knowledge or our understanding of factoring. Now factoring is something
that we've been doing for many years now. You can go all the way back
to when you were thinking about how would I factor the number 12. Well I could write the number
12 as three times four. I could also write it as two times six. These are all legitimate factors. Or I could try to do a
prime factorization of 12, where I'm trying to
write it as the product of you could view it as its
most basic constituents, which would be the prime numbers. And so we've done stuff like,
well 12 can be expressed as two times six. Two is prime, but then
six can be expressed as two times three. And so 12 could be expressed
as two times two times three, which we see right over here. This is all review, and this
would be a prime factorization. And we saw an analogue when we first learned it in algebra I. In algebra I, we learned things like, and sometimes this might
be in a math I class or even in a pre-algebra class, you'll learn things like
hey, how do I factor x squared plus six x? And you might recognize that hey, x squared could be rewritten as x times x, and six x, that really
just means six times x. And so both of them have x as a factor, and so we might wanna factor that out. And so we could rewrite
this entire expression as x times x plus six. What we just did is we
factored out these x's that I am circling in blue. So in general, this idea of factoring, if you're thinking about numbers, you're writing one number as
the product of other numbers. If you're thinking about expressions, you're writing an
expression as the product of other expressions. Well now as we go a little bit
more advanced into algebra, we're gonna start
thinking about doing this with higher order expressions. So we've done it with just
an x or just an x squared, but now we're gonna start thinking about, well what happens if we have
something to the third power, fourth power, sixth power,
10th power, 100th power? But it's really the same ideas. And we could start with monomials, which is fancy word
for just a single term. So let's say I had something
like six x to the seventh. What are the different ways
that I could factor this? Pause this video and think about it. Can I express this as the
product of two other things? Well, I could rewrite this
as this as being equal to two x to the third times what? Well let's see, what do
I have to multiply two by to get to six? I have to multiply it by three. And what do I have to
multiply x to the third by to get to x to the seventh? I could multiply it times
three x to the fourth. Notice, two times three is six, x to the third times x to the
fourth is x to the seventh. We add exponents when we're multiplying, when we're multiplying
things with the same base. But this isn't the only way to factor. Just as we saw that three
times four wasn't the only way to factor 12. You could also express this
as maybe being equal to x to the sixth times what? Well, we would still have
to multiply by six then, and then we'd have to
multiply by another x. So we could write this as
x to the sixth times six x. So there is oftentimes
multiple ways to factor a higher degree monomial like this. And there is also an
analogue to doing something like a prime factorization. When you're trying to really decompose, rewrite this expression as a
product of it simplest parts. How would you do that
for six x to the seventh? Well, you could rewrite that. You could say six x to the seventh, well that's equal to, we could
think about the six first. We know that the prime
factorization of six is two times three, two times three. And then x to the
seventh is just seven x's multiplied by each other. So times x times x times x times x times x, how many is that? That's five, six, and seven. And so some of what we were doing, when I said two x to the third, what we really thought about is okay, I had a two, and then I
had x times x times x. And then what do I have to multiply that? Well I have to multiply that
by three x to the fourth. And as we will see, being
able to think about monomials in this way will be useful for factoring higher degree things
that aren't monomials, things that are binomials, trinomials, or polynomials in general. And we'll do that in future videos.